172 - Growth v staying small

Debate - Growth v staying small

This week's discussion is a debate David and I have wanted to have from some time about business approaches.

Setting up the Debate

There’s many types of businesses providing websites and marketing to many different client types. We have self-employed freelancers seeing it more as their vocation or as a side gig. Then we have large Agencies with teams of specialists, designers, UX experts, frontend and backend developers, project manager and a whole load more.

Anyone who knows us we know we are really the former. Why the debate?

Probably because there is a general wisdom that self employed people need to think of themselves as a business and that business are expected to grow.

We are exploring whether this applies to those offering website services with WordPress.

So, somewhat arbitrarily, David is going to argue from the point of view of growth, and I'm (Nathan) will argue that we can stay small.

To summarise, these are the points that we bring to the table...

For growth (David)

• businesses have to be competitive in a capitalist market and the collective can achieve more than the individual
• growth can increase the quality of the service and the likelihood of innovation
• we need to be able to accommodate work, not be restricted to the hours of one 
• we can attend allow people to attend events such as WordCamp and contribute to the WordPress project etc.
• increasingly people can DIY their website, making customers our competitors, but each will get stuck on something - maybe php or javascript coding or visual design, copy, or need to adhere to strict accessibility - the more specialism I have, the more people we can help
• having a growth mentality stops you thinking like you are an employee and undercharging and not being able devolve responsibilities - see E-Myth revisited by Michael E. Gerber
• who wants to work like a donkey their whole life - we all slow down and get less sharp so rather than let your start work go in to decline you delegate, bring in new ideas and take more of a back seat - use your wisdom and the new peoples energy - just how work was in the feudal system!
• we all need change in our lives - if you grow the business correctly you have something to sell
• able to pass on the day to day boring stuff to explore new avenues
• you're better able to spend time on marketing to avoid famine and feast

For staying small (Nathan)

• you don’t need to grow the organisation to grow the potential income with so much automation available in digital services - care plans and building site is becoming automated more and more
• we work in the rapidly changing digital world - we need to adapt quickly
• when can making more money ever replace freedom in having a happy life - a whole life time on fight or flight mode seems like a good way to shorten life
• we are connected globally to the innovation of others all the time now - we don’t need to permanently hire in
• Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business - book by Paul Jarvis

Clearly, we don't have all the answer, and it's also pretty clear that both of us have adopted the same 'stay small' approach, but it's an interesting debate nonetheless.

I have to say that I'm really enjoying these debate formats, they seems to bring something new out of both David and I as we have to think about a position which is often contrary to the one that we hold. I don't have to do this all too often in life and so it's allowing me to see things from the other side.

I really appreciate those of you who have taken the time to write comment and email about the previous debates, and would certainly welcome more of you to do that. If you're on the wpbuilds.com website then feel free to click on the buttons below this post and subscribe to our updates and join us in our Facebook group where we often carry on the conversation.

Thanks for listening!

Mentioned in this episode:

E-Myth revisited by Michael E. Gerber

Company of One by Paul Jarvis